Paolo Salvagione

Blackwork, 2011

Paper

24 x 24 in.

Courtesy of the artist

Retail Value: $10,000

Paolo Salvagione’s (AIR ’10) freestanding (or wall-hanging) works are, in his sketchbook, labeled as “essays.” That’s in the classic French sense of “essayer,” which translates as “to try.” They originate as experiments — as explorations of volume, space, color, and form, and as attempts to make the most of nontraditional materials. At their essence, they are thought experiments. Sometimes they play with what isn’t there, and sometimes they play off what is there. Each sits at the juncture of two entirely different explorations: the idea, and the manufacturing process. Ideas are an origin point for this work, but so too are the means by which he accomplishes the realization of those ideas. He’s said, “I am most interested in the engineering when it feels more like art, and the art when it feels more like engineering.” Salvagione lives and works in Sausalito, California.